1. President Pervez Musharraf wins a vote of confidence from parliament and the four provincial assemblies. Opposition parties boycott the vote. The air link between India and Pakistan is restored after a break of two years.
3. Indian prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee arrives in Islamabad to attend the 12th Saarc summit.
5. President Musharraf and Prime Minister Vajpayee discuss bilateral issues, including the dispute on Kashmir, in Islamabad.
6. The joint statement issued after the Musharraf-Vajpayee meeting says that the composite dialogue between India and Pakistan will resume in February.
9. An army brigade camp outside Wana comes under a hail of rockets, killing at least four soldiers.
10. The cabinet approves amendments to the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, and enhances the punishment for financiers of terrorism, besides making it a non-bailable offence.
15. The Samjhota Express train service between Pakistan and India resumes operation after a break of over two years.
17. In his first address to a joint session of parliament, the president calls for jihad against extremism.
18. Pakistani intelligence agencies pick up five senior officials of the Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) including Dr Abdul Kadeer Khan's personal secretary. In Karachi, law-enforcement agencies pick up seven Al Qaeda suspects including two women in a pre-dawn raid on an apartment.
20. Pakistan signs four agreements with Turkey in Ankara which include an anti-terrorism accord following talks between the presidents of the two countries.
26. Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz says that the United States has approved $395 million in economic assistance to Pakistan.
28. The federal cabinet approves the draft law for setting up a National Security Council.
31. Dr A.Q. Khan is removed as adviser to the prime minister.
February
1. Dr A Q Khan admits involvement in the transfer of nuclear technology to North Korea, Libya and Iran.
4. He submits a mercy petition to the president seeking a pardon.
5. The president pardons Dr Khan on the recommendation of the federal cabinet.
7. The wreckage of the tanker Tasman Spirit is sold for Rs24 million.
10. Thousands of activists of political parties stage a huge rally in Karachi to register Sindh's rejection of the Greater Thal Canal and the Kalabagh Dam.
14. Two earthquakes strike NWFP and the Northern Areas killing 21 people.
15. Basant-related incidents kill 10 people and injure over 100 in Lahore.
18. The foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan meet in Islamabad and agree to hold talks on peace and security, CBMs, and Jammu and Kashmir in May-June this year.
24. At least 20 suspected terrorists including some foreign nationals are arrested during a day-long operation by the army and paramilitary troops in Wana, South Waziristan.
27. President Bush clears the bill for US aid to Pakistan by certifying that Islamabad is cooperating in the war on terrorism.
28. Eleven people are killed as troops open fire on passenger pickups in South Waziristan tribal region mistaking them for militants.
March
1. The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Confederation of Indian Industy sign a memorandum of understanding to foster trade ties.
6. PPPP member of the Sindh Assembly, Abdullah Murad Baloch, is shot dead along with his driver by unknown assailants on the outskirts of Karachi.
14. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement unseats three of its MNAs from Karachi and replaces some of its ministers in the federal and Sindh cabinets.
17. The MMA slates the military action in South Waziristan.
18. The US designates Pakistan a major non-Nato ally.
20. A 100 people are captured in South Waziristan.
22. Pakistan agrees to join a UK-led seven nation naval task force to patrol the Arabian sea as part of the ongoing operation against terrorism.
25. President George W Bush waives sanctions imposed on Pakistan after Pervez Musharraf seized power in 1999.
26. Militants in South Waziristan shoot dead eight soldiers.
29. The director general of the ISPR confirms that the chief of the Al Qaeda intelligence networks, Abdullah, has been killed.
30. The Sindh High Court upholds the right of Shaista Almani and Balaksher Maher to enter into matrimony of their own free will as legally competent and free citizens of Pakistan.
April
4. Five policemen are gunned down by armed men who storm a police station in Karachi.
7. The National Assembly passes the National Security Council bill.
12. The district and sessions court Islamabad sentences ARD president Makhdoom Javed Hashmi to 23 years in prison and fines him Rs42,000 for inciting mutiny in the army.
The US government makes a request to Pakistan for sending troops to Iraq as part of a multinational UN force.
13. The government rushes the National Security Council bill through the Senate. It is passed in three and half minutes.
19. President Pervez Musharraf signs the bill.
The government allows Asif Ali Zardari to proceed to Switzerland to defend himself in the SGS and Cotecna money laundering case. He refuses to travel on medical grounds.
20. The year long Wana conflict appears to be coming to an end after five wanted militants agree to lay down their arms in return for clemency from the government.
22. A single bench of the Sindh High Court bans trials conducted under the jirga system.
ARD president Makhdoom Javed Hashmi challenges his conviction before the Rawalpindi Bench of the Lahore High Court.
25. The government announces that the Pakistan Army will reduce its numerical strength in the coming years by about 50,000 men.
30. Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali talks about reports of his likely ouster and early elections in the country.May
May
1. Police in Macedonia admit that the killing of alleged Pakistani terrorists two years ago was staged to win US support and that the victims were actually illegal immigrants.
2. Authorities in South Waziristan ask foreign militants to avail of an amnesty offered in 2003 by President Musharraf and get themselves registered by May 7.
3. A car bomb attack on a van of the Chinese Harbour Engineering Company in Gwadar leaves three Chinese engineers dead and injures 11 others.
4. Prime Minister Jamali formally announces his candidature for the office of secretary general of the unified Pakistan Muslim League.
7. In Karachi a suicide bomber attacks a Shia mosque on the premises of Sindh Madressatul Islam killing 14 people.
11. PML-N president and former Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif lands at Lahore airport, only to be duly sent back to Saudi Arabia by the government.
12. Five PML factions and the Sindh Democratic Alliance merge to form one party to be called the Pakistan Muslim League.
By-election related violence in Karachi results in the death of eight people and injury to 28.
14. Karachi's City District Government and a Chines group of companies sign an agreement for laying a 15.2 km-long double track for a light-rail transit system.
15. Addressing a human rights convention, President Musharraf calls for a law to ban honour killing and emphasizes that the Hudood Ordinance and the blasphemy laws should be studied afresh to ensure that they were not misused.
22. The Commonwealth restores Pakistan's membership.
Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali convenes a meeting of the four chief ministers and the official and non-official members of the National Finance Commission in an effort to reach a consensus on the sixth NFC award.
23. Pakistan-India talks on nuclear CBMs, to be held in New Delhi on May 25-26, are postponed.
24. President Musharraf tells a students' convention that the country cannot be held ransom by religious extremists.
25. MMA Secretary-general Maulana Fazlur Rahman is appointed leader of the opposition in the National Assembly.
26. A police guard is killed and at least 33 people are wounded when two car bombs explode near the the Pakistan American Cultural Centre in Karachi.
27. President Musharraf discloses that some junior officers in the Pakistan Army and Pakistan Air Force have been arrested for their alleged involvement in an assassination attempt on him in Rawalpindi last year.
30. Deobandi cleric Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai is assassinated in Karachi.
31. At least 18 people are killed and 35 injured in a suicide bomb blast in an imambargah in Karachi.
June
2. The Indus River System Authority (Irsa) constitutes a committee to probe into the country's reported water shortage problem.
3. Curfew is imposed on Gilgit to maintain law and order in view of a protest call given by a local leader against school curriculum that allegedly is said to contain material against a sect's religious belief.
4. Army and paramilitary troops start massive mobilization in South Waziristan amidst apprehensions of a fresh military drive against foreign militants.
5. The Northern Areas administration and protesting Shia leaders agree to sign a deal to resolve the syllabus issue.
Indian External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh says India is willing to consider the gas pipeline project from Iran via Pakistan if Islamabad provides international security guarantees.
7. Sardar Ali Mohammad Mahar resigns as chief minister of Sindh. Provincial minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim is tipped as his successor.
9. At least 15 soldiers and 20 suspected militants are killed in fighting in South Waziristan.
Arbab Ghulam Rahim takes oath as the new chief minister of Sindh.
10. At least 11 people are killed and 12 others injured when a convoy of the Corps Commander of Karachi is ambushed near the city's Clifton Bridge.
President Musharraf announces a package of incentives for farmers to promote growth in the agricultural sector.
11. Pakistan Air Force jets and military helicopters carry out bombing runs in the South Waziristan tribal area.
15. Prime Minister Jamali declares in unequivocal terms that the government will not make any un-Islamic amendments to the Hudood Ordinance.
17. Munawwar Soharwardy, the Sindh PPPP information secretary, is shot dead in Karachi.
18. Security forces kill Nek Mohammad and four other tribal militants in a missile attack at his hideout.
Nuclear talks between Pakistan and India begin in New Delhi.
19. Dr Ataur Rahman says in an interview that in the next five years, Pakistan's education system will produce between 1200 and 1500 PhDs every year.
21. Foreign minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri and Natwar Singh agree to take forward the peace process between Pakistan and India.
25. Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali dismisses rumours about his resignation.
26. Mr Jamali steps down as prime minister and nominates Chaudhry Shujat Hussain as his interim successor.
30. Mr Hussain takes oath as the country's 22nd prime minister. He wins a vote of confidence in the National Assembly.
July
1. It is announced that finance minister Shaukat Aziz will contest election for the National Assembly from two constituencies, one in Punjab and the other in Sindh.
2. Pakistan is formally accepted as the 24th member of the Asean Regional Forum (ARF) in a move to lessen tensions in the region and with fellow nuclear power, India.
Amjad Hafeez, a Pakistani driver captured by militants in Iraq, is released by his captors.
11. Golden Jubilee celebrations of the first ascent of K2 begin.
14. The US agrees to buy from Pakistan small arms and ammunition for Iraq and Afghanistan.
15. US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage assures Pakistan that Washington will speed up delivery of vital security assistance and consider any request for advanced weapons systems.
16. Pakistan and the US sign an agreement for the formal waiver of a $495.3 million debt.
The government tables in the National Assembly a bill that enables politicians to hold government and party offices simultaneously.
19. India's external affairs minister Natwar Singh arrives in Islamabad to attend Saarc's regional conference.
20. The opposition presents a bill on karo kari in the National Assembly.
21. The Senate passes the Political Parties Order (amendment) Bill that allows the holders of public office to keep the party office as well.
24. The government releases the three officials of the Khan Research Laboratories in official custody for six months for their alleged involvement in nuclear proliferation.
25. Security forces arrest 13 suspected terrorists, including four foreigners and some members of their families, after a standoff in a house in Gujrat.
28. Two Pakistanis, taken hostage in Iraq, are reported killed by their captors.
31. The Islambouli Brigade which is linked to the Al Qaeda network claims responsibility for the assassination attempt on finance minister Shaukat Aziz.
August
1.. The government decides on a major policy shift to reject investment proposals for gas-fired power plants and puts in place a new gas allocation plan.
2. The foreign office denies having sent any troops to Iraq.
I.A. Rahman of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, receives the Magsaysay award.
4. Eleven people die in a heavy exchange of fire between security forces and militants in Shakai area of South Waziristan. Thirteen officers are killed when an MI-17 helicopter of the Pakistan Army crashes.
6. Defence secretaries of India and Pakistan wrap up their two day talks with the resolve to pursue an agreement to their dispute over the siachen glacier.
The Washington Post reports that the CIA is providing millions of dollars and NASA is gathering and processing electronic intercepts for carrying out a large scale operation in Waziristan.
7. India and Pakistan conclude their two day talks over their border demarcation dispute in the Sir Creek with no signs of a headway.
8. Eight people are killed and 40 injured when two bombs explode near the Jamia Binori Maddressah in Karachi.
9. Pakistan and India swap six prisoners, including three soldiers detained during the 1999 Kargil conflict.
10. Pakistani and Indian officials present their points of view on the issues of cross border terrorism and drug smuggling.
Five wanted militans surrender to the political authorities in Wana.
11. Federal Minister Humayun Akhtar Khan says that Pakistan is ready to consider the most favoured nation (MFN) status for India if a sustainable political dialogue process between the two countries gots underway to resolve all outstanding issues.
16. Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat says that the Jamaat-i-Islami is supporting Al Qaeda and providing shelter to its leaders.
17. The chairman of the National Highway Authority, Maj Gen. Farrukh Javed, says that work on the Bhasha dam will start in June 2006.
18. Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz wins with NA bye-elections from Attock and Tharparkar by huge margins.
20. The United States Congress passes a $3 billion aid package for Pakistan.
21. The Karachi city council adopts a resolution calling for a complete ban on charged parking.
25. Prime Minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain resigns after 57 days in office ending his transitional term and clearing the way for Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz.
27. The National Assembly elects former finance minister Shaukat Aziz as prime minister.
28. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz wins a vote of confidence from the National Assembly and spells out his government's plans to counter the challenges the country is facing.
September
1. President Musharraf administers oath of office to 32 federal ministers of the cabinet of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.
5. India's defence minister rules out any move to reduce the Indian military presence in Siachen.
6. President Musharraf says 96 per cent of Pakistanis want him to remain as army chief.
9. In South Waziristan the air force conducts a raid on what the military calls a terrorist training facility killing 50 foreign and local militants.
10. Three army men, including a Captain, and six militants are killed in an encounter in South Waziristan Agency.
13. The Punjab Assembly adopts a resolution with a majority vote urging President Musharraf to continue keeping the office of president and army chief simultaneously.
15. At its first meeting the cabinet of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz makes it clear that there is no constitutional restriction on General Musharraf remaining the president in uniform.
The NWFP Assembly adopts a resolution calling upon President Musharraf to quit either the post of army chief or the presidency by December 31, 2004.
22. In a New York meeting with President Musharraf, President Bush emphasizes the need for continuing the programme for "enlightened moderation".
23. The British government conveys to Islamabad the report that some senior government officials and important political figures are involved in sending people illegally to the UK.
24. The president of Pakistan and the prime minister of India meet in New York and issue a joint statement recognizing Kashmir as a disputed issue.
25. The prime minister announces the lifting of the economic blockade on the various tribes of the South Waziristan Agency.
October
1. 25 people are killed and over 50 wounded in Sialkot when a suspected suicide bomber attacks a mosque adjacent to Imambargah Mistri Abdullah.
The president appoints Lt-General Ehsan ul Haq chairman Joint Chief of Staff Committee and Lt-General Ahsan Saleem Hyat Vice-Chief of Army Staff.
3. The prime minister tells a press conference in Quetta that the Gwadar port will be formally inaugurated in January 2005.
7. At least 39 people are killed and 70 injured in Multan in a car bomb explosion near a place where a gathering was held to commemorate the death anniversary of Azam Tariq.
8. The government introduces a draft bill in the National Assembly that aims at allowing the president to retain his army post until his tenure in the presidency.
9. Two Chinese engineers and their five security guards are kidnapped while travelling through South Waziristan Agency.
14. One of the two Chinese, the other is freed and their kidnappers are killed in a commando action in South Waziristan.
26. The National Assembly adopts a bill enhancing the punishment for honour killing including karo kari.
27. An Indian foreign ministry spokesman says New Delhi is ready to discuss President Musharraf's latest proposals on Kashmir but rejects the move to conduct talks through the media.
31. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz tells a press conference in Islamabad that Pakistan wants to take its composite dialogue with India forward and seeks a peaceful solution to all outstanding issues, including the Kashmir dispute.
November
1. The Senate passes a bill allowing President Pervez Musharraf to remain army chief beyond Dec 2004.
4. The Supreme Court bars the serving of meals at wedding ceremonies.
5. In an international conference in New Delhi, MQM chief Altaf Hussain suggests that the Line of Control in Kashmir be accepted as a de facto border till a feasible option is found.
6 .India formally requests Pakistan to import diesel from Gujarat and Haryana by removing the product from the negative list of permissible imports form India.
11. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announces that India has decided to reduce its troops in Jammu and Kashmir this winter.
18. Pakistan says that the process of troop withdrawal from Indian-held Kashmir would continue and would ultimately lead to universal respect for the rights of the Kashmiris facilitating the on-going dialogue.
21. An accord is reached at a meeting between Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and Sri Lankan President Chandrika Bandranaike Kumaratunga in Colombo to enhance defence cooperation and take a number of steps to expand and consolidate bilateral ties.
22. PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari jailed on corruption charges on Nov 4, 1996 is released after the Supreme Court grants him bail.
24. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz holds talks with his Indian counterpart during which the two leaders reiterate their commitment to carry forward the dialogue process.
25. National Accountability Bureau Chairman Lt Gen Munir Hafiz says Mr Zardari's release is not an outcome of any deal.
30. Acting President Mohammadmian Soomro signs the bill allowing the president to hold another office which enables President Pervez Musharraf to retain the office of the chief of army staff beyond December 2004.
December
1. Pakistan exits the IMF programme as the Fund completes the ninth and final review of the country's three year poverty reduction programme allowing it to forego the final tranch of $262 million.
3. Three judges are kidnapped in Sindh.
4. President George W. Bush and President Pervez Musharraf meet in Washington, DC.
Three children and two teachers are killed in Lahore when a merry-go-round collapses in an amusement park.
6. A full bench of the Lahore High Court strikes down the Juvenile Justice Ordinance of 2000.
7. The Senate passes the honour killing bill.
10. A bomb attached to a bicycle in Quetta goes off killing 11 people and injuring 26.
13. Four new districts are created in Sindh by carving out new entities from Larkana, Dadu, Mirpurkhas and Tharparkar.
15. Pakistan and China sign seven agreements in the trade, communication and energy sectors and draw up a framework for greater economic cooperation.
16. President Musharraf inaugurates the Makran Coastal highway and also vows to build the Mirani dam.
21. The authorities re-arrest Asif Ali Zardari after his bail is cancelled by a sessions judge.
22. The federal government sets up the Pakistan National Commission for Human Rights (PNHRC) to oversee the human rights situation in the country.
The Sindh High Court allows Mr Zardari bail in the Justice Nizam Ahmed murder case.
24. A military court sentences one soldier to death and another to 10 years in prison for involvement in an assassination attempt on President Musharraf in Rawalpindi in 2003.
27. Pakistan's Foreign Secretary Riaz Khokar presents a list of proposed CBMs to the Indian Foreign Secretary at their meeting in Islamabad . President Musharraf announces a raise in pensions for workers.
